1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to systems and methods for providing merchant insights. More specifically, one or more disclosed embodiments relate to systems and methods for providing merchant insights for one or more physical (i.e., brick and mortar) locations associated with a merchant.
2. Background and Relevant Art
A number of people visit retail establishments on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day. These establishments, such as retail stores, grocery stores, department stores, malls, strip malls, etc., provide people (e.g., customers) with the ability to purchase a variety of products (e.g., goods and services). Even with the growth of e-commerce and the ability to purchase products online, people still purchase a majority of products at physical retail establishments.
Merchants who operate retail establishments are regularly trying to better understand the customers who visit their retail establishments. For example, merchants often provide customer loyalty programs that allow the merchant to collect some personal information about their customers. Further, many customer loyalty programs also help the merchant match product purchases to individual customers. Merchants can use this information to tailor marketing and promotions for customers. However, conventional systems and methods used by brick-and-mortar merchants to obtain personal information and shopping behaviors of customers are significantly limited. In particular, in accordance with conventional methods, a merchant is only able to obtain information regarding purchases made directly from the merchant and of products the merchant already offers. As such, conventional systems and methods do not allow a brick-and-mortar merchant to know what additional product offerings its customers would be interested in.
More specifically, conventional systems and methods do not allow a brick-and-mortar merchant to obtain information regarding user interest and purchasing behaviors that occur beyond the merchant's retail locations. For example, under conventional systems and methods, a merchant is generally unable to identify products a customer purchases from other sources. Further, merchants are similarly unable to discover interests and preferences of a customer that are relevant to the merchant, but that are not evident from the customer's purchases from the merchant. For example, a merchant's customer may purchase a particular product online, but would purchase the product from the merchant's brick-and-mortar location if the merchant carried the product. However, the merchant has no way of discovering this fact and, therefore, will be unable to capitalize on this business opportunity.
Accordingly, these and other disadvantages exist with respect to conventional business models for brick-and-mortar retailers.